The world in 2018, by the Economist

The U.S. and China started a trade war, the world's worst such dispute in decades. America imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese products; China responded with tariffs of its own. America also slapped duties on steel imports from Europe, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere, infuriating its allies. Donald Trump intervened on national-security grounds to scupper a $117 billion bid from Broadcom, a chipmaker with ties to Southeast Asia, for Qualcomm. It would have been the biggest-ever tech merger. There was one de-escalation: The U.S., Canada and Mexico struck a deal to update NAFTA.

In another dysfunctional year at the White House, Rex Tillerson was sacked as secretary of state, as was Jeff Sessions as attorney general, both after the president had publicly undermined them. Jim Mattis quit as secretary of defense. The investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, into Russian influence in U.S. elections rumbled on, laying charges against some of Trump's former aides. A voter backlash against Trump propelled the Democrats to win the House of Representatives in the midterms, though the Republicans increased their majority in the Senate.

The messy spectacle of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court polarized U.S. politics even further.

After a year of tortuous Brexit negotiations, Theresa May and the European Commission agreed on a deal for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, but Britain's Parliament has not approved the agreement.

Facebook came under intense pressure to rein in fake news and protect user data. The revelation that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that had worked on Donald Trump's campaign in 2016, had obtained information on 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app shook the company to its core.

A large number of prominent chief executives left their jobs or announced their departures. The list includes Vittorio Colao at Vodafone, Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo, Paul Polman at Unilever, Martin Sorrell at WPP and Dieter Zetsche at Daimler. John Flannery was ousted at General Electric, as was John Cryan at Deutsche Bank. Carlos Ghosn was dismissed from Nissan for alleged misdeeds. The carmaking industry lost another giant with the death of Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler's boss.

Elon Musk stood down as Tesla's chairman, but remains chief executive, after tweeting that he intended to take the company private, a move that fell foul of regulators. The electric-car maker at last hit its production targets.

In Syria, the regime of Bashar Assad used chemical weapons again, killing scores of people in Douma, the last rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta.

Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on female drivers and allowed cinemas to open for the first time in decades. But these small liberalizing steps were overshadowed by the arbitrary locking up of feminists, plutocrats and many others. Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist, was killed and dismembered by Saudi operatives in a consulate in Istanbul.

Xi Jinping confirmed his grip on power in China by promoting more of his allies to top positions.

Brazil and Mexico elected populist leaders. In the year's other big elections, Colombia took a conservative turn when it elected Iván Duque as president. With the main opposition candidate barred from running, Vladimir Putin was easily re-elected as Russia's president. Pakistan received a new prime minister in Imran Khan. Malaysians ousted the increasingly corrupt party that had ruled their country since independence in 1957. And Zimbabwe's election was won by ZANU-PF, sans Robert Mugabe.

The crisis of socialist mismanagement in Venezuela deepened, speeding up a mass exodus of its hungry and disenfranchised people.

A former pupil went on a rampage at his high school in Florida on St. Valentine's Day, killing 17 people. Eleven Jews were killed by a gunman at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, America's worst-ever anti-Semitic attack.